Tricky to label Honda Crosstour 'made in America'

Saturday

Jul 6, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 6, 2013 at 12:21 PM

One of the most "American" vehicles on the market is made by a Japanese company here in central Ohio. The Honda Crosstour, assembled in East Liberty, gets 75 percent of its parts from the United States or Canada, according to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Dan Gearino, The Columbus Dispatch

One of the most “American” vehicles on the market is made by a Japanese company here in central Ohio.

The Honda Crosstour, assembled in East Liberty, gets 75 percent of its parts from the United States or Canada, according to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

That is the most “American” content of any hatchback on the market and is tied for the ninth-most such content of any car or truck, the agency says. It is ahead of vehicles that some might say epitomize the U.S. auto industry, such as the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette, both of which have 70 percent American content.

The rankings show how difficult it is to determine which vehicles are the most American at a time when every major automaker has a supply chain that crosses international borders.

“A lot of people who buy Hondas and Toyotas are aware that the model they bought was assembled in America, and they think that is important,” said James Rubenstein, an independent auto writer based in Oxford, Ohio.

At the same time, when some buyers say they want an American-made car, they mean they want a union-made car, he said. Chrysler, Ford and General Motors all have unions at their U.S. assembly plants, while most automakers based outside the U.S., including Honda, do not.

New vehicles must have a window sticker that shows where the vehicle was assembled and the percentage of American content. The listing is required by the American Automobile Labeling Act, which took effect in 1994 and is enforced by NHTSA.

Some observers say the government list, most recently updated in April, is misleading because it counts Canadian parts as American content. Automakers pushed for this designation because they said that many Canadian suppliers are nearly indistinguishable from those in the U.S. in terms of wages and quality of products.

Other critics think the NHTSA list overstates the American-ness of some vehicles made by companies based outside the country. Frank DuBois is one of them. A professor at the Kogod School of Business at American University in Washington, D.C., DuBois has compiled his own list, the Kogod Made in America Auto Index, to address some of these perceived shortcomings. He uses a 100-point system that can be compared with the NHTSA’s percentages.

“Part of this is to open a debate about, ‘What is an American car?'" he said. “This is something I question when I see Hyundai, Toyota and Honda saying they are American cars.”

He gives the Ford Mustang a score of 85 out of 100, compared with the NHTSA list, which says the vehicle is 70 percent American-made.

The Honda Crosstour is not listed on Dubois’ index, but another Ohio-made Honda, the Accord, has a score of 66.5, which is actually higher than the 65 percent ranking from NHTSA, partly because the Accord’s engine also is built in the United States.

While there are many ways of quantifying the extent to which a vehicle is American, Rubenstein thinks that most customers have a grasp on the nuances. For example, they know that a Honda built in Ohio is an American-made car whose manufacturer is based in Japan.